Eur asian Pre his tory, 8 (1–2): 3–28. THE PLEIS TO CENE HU MAN SET TLE MENT IN GILAN, SOUTH WEST CAS PIAN SEA: RE CENT RESEARCH Fereidoun Biglari1, 2 and Vali Jahani3 1 Paleolithic De partment, Na tional Mu seum of Iran, 30 Tir St., Emam Ave., Teh ran, Iran 2 l’Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire (PACEA), Bâtiment de géologie B 18, Av e nue des Facultés, Université Bor deaux 1, 33405, Talence Cedex, France; [email protected] 3 Ar chae o log i cal Ser vice Sec tor of Gilan, Ira nian Cul tural Her i tage, Hand i crafts and Tour ism Or ga ni za tion, Rasht, Iran; vali_jahani@ya hoo.com Ab stract This paper reviews recent devel op ments in the Paleolithic archae ology in the Gilan region of southwest ern Cas pian Sea utiliz ing infor ma tion accu mulated over the last decade. The doc u mented sites fall within the Early to the Late Paleolithic peri ods and include both shel tered (caves and rock shelters) and open-air sites. The Lower Paleolithic sites of Ganj Par and Darband pro duced archae o logi cal record dating back at least to Middle Pleis tocene. For the later Middle Paleolithic pe riod, the only known site is Yarshalman, while late Paleolithic re mains are known from at least four caves and rock shelters and two open-air sites. Gilan cur rently fur nishes the most convinc ing evi dence for the Acheul ian indus - try in Iran and the earli est radio met ric date for the presence of hominins in the Ira nian Plateau. Key words: Alborz, Paleolithic, Ach eulian. of the Alborz Mountai ns in the south west of the IN TRO DUC TION Cas pian Sea. Gilan’s geo graphica l posi ti on on the way be - tween the Cau ca sus re gion and cen tral Iran and its great eco log ical di ver sity make it a key re gion for PHYS IO GRAPHIC SET TING un der stand ing hu man pop u la tion move ments and The ex tensive east-west trending Alborz their cul tures dur ing Plio-Pleis to cene and Pleis to - Moun tains is the most prom i nent top o graph i cal cene. The Caspian coastal plain and the Sefidrud feature to the south of the Cas pian Sea. It runs River with its trib u tar ies combin ed with gen eral nearly par allel along the south ern coast of the marked en vi ron men tal vari a tions in this re gion Cas pian Sea and sep a rates hu mid zone of the Cas - supporte d a diverse fauna and flora during the pian lowlands from the arid uplands of Cen tral Pleisto cene which in turn provided rich ground Iran, form ing a barrie r betwee n these two regions. for hominin exploi tati on (Figs 1, 2). The deep transversal gorge of the Sefidrud (lit., De spite its rich po ten tial for Paleolithic archa- ‘White River’) sep arate s the Alborz from the eology, the region was unknown un til the turn of west ern high lands of the Talesh Moun tains. The twenty-first cen tury. Dis cov ery of at least nine Sefidrud is the main river of the region and the Paleolithic sites in var ious parts of the region dur- larg est one reaching the south ern shore of the ing the re cent de cade demon strates its po ten tial Cas pian Sea (Figs 1, 2). for Paleolithic stud ies. Although few in num ber, The Alborz and the Talesh Mountai ns occupy these recent ly discov ered sites shed new light on most of the Gilan province in south west of the hu man Pleis to cene oc cu pa tion in the west ern part Cas pian Sea. To its north lie the Cas pian coastal 4 F. Biglari & V. Jahani Fig. 1. Lo ca tion map of the known Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic sites in the Gilan prov ince of north west ern Iran. In set bot tom left: Lo ca tion of Gilan in South west ern Asia plain with the Sefidrud Delta in the east and the Re gional cli mate change dur ing Pleis to cene Fumanat plain in the west. A num ber of minor ri- is de tectable in the loess depos it s along the Sefi- vers orig inat ing in the northern foot hills of the Al- drud gorge. Two loess-soil se quences at Rostama- borz and the Talesh cross the narrow coastal plains. bad and Saravan have been stud ied (Kehl et al., The cli mate of Gilan is tem per ate in the north 2008). These se quences show an alter nati on of (i) and becom es semi-arid in the south toward up- compar a tively dry and cool clim ate phases with lands of Cen tral Iran. The rain-fed northern slopes in creased dust ac cu mu la tion in clud ing loess for- of the Alborz and north eastern part of Talesh are mati on, and (ii) moist and warm phases with soil covered with dense forest s subdi vided into two for ma tion, re spec tively (Fig. 3). Sev eral paleosols disti nct sub types: the so-called Hyrcanian forest , were recog nized in the profil es de veloped under and the hu mid montane forest . The Hyrcanian for- forest vege ta ti on (Kehl, 2009). Re cent datings of est proper has been re placed from 800–1000 m Luminesance sam ples taken from sec tion of Ros- above sea level (a.s.l.) by the hum id montane for- tamabad yielded two age esti mates of 63.7 ± 5.8 ests (Ehlers, 1999). Hyrcanian forest is rich in rel- ka BP and 130 ± 12 ka BP (Fig. 3). The older date ict spe cies and its di ver sity of ed ible plants and com es from a sam ple taken from below of the first as so ciated fauna could have been an at trac tive ha- buried paleosol, which indi cat e the first paleosol bitat for the Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic hunter- is prob a bly cor re lates with the last or older inter - gath er ers. glacia l soil (Kehl, 2010). The sam ples ob tained The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 5 Fig. 2. An over view of the Gilan prov ince south west of the Capian Sea; look ing to the east. 1. Lasulkan; 2. Yarshalman; 3. Chaplak; 4. Darband; 5. Malehan A; 6. Askabon sites; 7. Khalvasht; 8. Ganj Par; 9. Sho’ul (cour - tesy of Christoph Hormann with some modi fi ca tions: http://earth.imagico.de/view.php?site=elbrus3 [Accessed 21 De cem ber 2010]) from the sec tion of Saravan yielded age es tim ates lack of ar chae o log i cal ex ca va tions in known strat- ranging from 22.7 ± 2.5 to 47.9 ± 4.8 ka BP indi - i fied sites, makes it dif fi cult to have any spec u la - cat ing loess de po siti on at Saravan occurred dur - tions about the ranges and effect s of such envi ron - ing OIS 3 and 2 (Kehl, 2010). men tal changes on lo cal hu man pop u la tions. Cli mate change is also re flected in old ter - races of the Sefidrud which have been stud ied by a num ber of resea rchers (Ehlers, 1971; Paluska RE SEARCH BACK GROUND and Degens, 1980; Busche et al., 1990; Maeo- Apart from a handful of the Late Paleolithic moku, 2003). However, the signif i canc e of these sites re corded in the east ern and cen tral parts of the ter races as mere ev idence for cli ma tic change is Alborz and the southern Caspian ba sin, the Early questi on able since tectoni c upli ft has also been in- Paleolithic period of the region was unknown un til volved in their form ati ons (Kehl, 2009). Evi dence the be ginning of the twenty-first cen tury. The for Pleisto cene up lift in the Alborz Mountai ns known sites in the east ern and centra l Alborz in - could be found in the form of incis ed river ter- clude the Hotu and the Belt Caves (Coon, 1951, races and coastal marine ter races (Berberian, 1952, 1957), and the Ali Tappeh Cave (McBurney, 1983). The area is seis mically active (Berberian, 1964, 1968). In the past two decade s, a num ber of 1983; Jackson et al., 2002) and during the 1990. new sites were dis cov ered in the east ern and cen - 06.20 Mw 7.3 Rudbar earth quake the whole area tral Alborz: (i) the Komishan Cave lo cated near the was com pletely dev as tated (Berberian et al., city of Behshahr (Heydari, 2003; Naderi, 2003; 1992; Berberian and Walker, 2010). Shidrang, 2003; Mashkour, 2010); (ii) the Qaleh Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic hunter-gath er - Asgar, Moghanak and Otchounak open-air sites lo- ers and faunal and floral resource s of the region cated near the city of Damavand (Amirlou, 1991; have been af fected by the Pleisto cene cli mate and Berillon et al., 2007); and (iii) the Garm Roud 2 the Cas pian Sea level changes. But at pres ent, site lo cated to the south of the city of Amol (Beril- 6 F.